UK now approves Covishield, but no quarantine relief for Indian travellers

New Delhi/London: Under pressure from India, the UK on Wednesday issued a revised travel advisory by including AstraZeneca’s Covishield as an approved vaccine, but it does not mention India as a country with a recognised public healthy body giving the vaccines.

The latest advisory means that Indians will have to undergo mandatory quarantine after arrival in the UK, despite being fully vaccinated.

The advisory reads: “From 4am Monday 4 October, you will qualify as fully vaccinated if you are vaccinated either:

* Under an approved vaccination programme in the UK, Europe, USA or UK vaccine programme overseas

* With a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

* Formulations of the 4 listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.

* You must have had a complete course of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before you arrive in England.”

On Monday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his bilateral meeting with new UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urged for an early resolution of UK’s quarantine regulations for vaccinated Indian travellers.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, answering a query on the subject, said the Covishield vaccine is a licensed product of a UK company manufactured in India and that “India has supplied 5 million doses to the UK at the request of the government of the UK”.

He said that the vaccines were used in the National Health System “and therefore, non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and does impact on those of our citizens travelling to the UK.”

He said that after EAM Jaishankar raised the issue strongly with his UK counterpart, “I'm told that certain assurances have been given that this issue would be resolved”.

“I think obviously, as we go along, we will have to see how it goes. But if you don't get satisfaction, we would be within our eyes to impose reciprocal measures,” he warned.

Last week, the UK issued a list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in England, which did not include India. It placed Indians who are vaccinated with Covishield in the category of "unvaccinated". Indians would be required to undergo a pre-departure PCR test and further tests on landing in the UK, and quarantine for 10 days. (UNI)